Sending big fat love from sunny Adelaide, Australia. Hoping all is well in your world and you’re having a lovely day.

Can’t believe we’re in mid-April already. It’s still like summer here in Adelaide. Have you got any good plans over the Easter break? I’m doing a 3 day walk with my two daughters. It will be our first multi-day pack walk together. It will either strengthen our bond and be an amazing mother-daughter experience, or it will be a miserable slog. Either way, I’m sure it will be utterly unforgettable. No one forgets their big experiences, particularly in wilderness. The walk we’re doing is in the appropriately named Mt Remarkable National Park in South Australia. It’s a bony, ancient, beautiful landscape of towering gorges, lots of red rock, fossils, kangaroos. And flies. I’ll throw some pics up on Instagram when we’re done if you want to check it out.

Progress on book 2, The Tempest and the Turning, is going along…but, I have to admit it’s happening a little slowly. Not out of choice. I would love all of my time to be devoted to writing my second book. The book writing is taking place concurrently with the setup of my copywriting business. I’ve learnt very quickly in this process that self-employment is not for the faint-hearted. It’s hard work and it’s pretty scary. Knowing I will not have a regular income is a big adjustment. Okay, that’s putting it mildly. I’m FREAKING out!! It’s a strange thing to be so scared, but feel such a deep, almost biological need to give it a go.

I was trying to understand my own motivation, and I came across some wonderful words by the poet Robert Frost which I think sum up quite nicely the way I’m feeling: Start with a big fat lump in your throat. Start with a profound sense of wrong, a deep homesickness, a crazy lovesickness, and run with it. If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve. Do what you love. And don’t stop until you get what you love.

Has anyone out there also taken on something that scared them so deeply but knew they had to do it anyway? I love hearing your stories. Please feel free to send me an email and share away. I promise I’ll respond.

As the title suggests, it’s birthday month. I’m an Aires through and through…adventurous, independent, passionate, okay maybe also impulsive and stubborn. I know a lot of people love audiobooks and my wonderful distributor has given me 30 codes of my audiobook, The River and the Ravages, to pass on to my peeps like YOU!. I’d love to give you a little pressie to say thanks for your support.

So what do you have to do? Just flick me an email and tell me you’d love an audiobook. There’s no going into a draw. It’s pretty much first in, first served…until they run out. But please please PLEASE post a review on Goodreads and Amazon once you’ve finished listening to the book. That’s all…a wee little something back in return to help me keep going as a writer. It would mean so much to me. Just a little warning though…the book does have ‘naughty’ bits. If you steadfast do not want to listen to a narrator tell a story with naughty bits, you’re not likely to enjoy The River and the Ravages. But if you’d like to listen to a story that is (as one review put it)….”hot and steamy, tender and thoughtful” it just might be for you.

So much love..

Jann xxoo